Several of the teams, like Massachusetts, were still working to complete their homes when we arrived on Wednesday, but the hard work paid off -- Massachusetts has one of our favorite houses in the competition! Called the 4D Home, the structure has an adaptable interior with a moving wall that lets the family change the sizes of the main room. The solar panel array is atop a trellis that creates shade for the panoramic front porch.

We have affectionately nicknamed SCI-Arc’s house the “puffy house,” as it creatively wears its insulation on its exterior. The home is actually called CHIP, which stands for compact hyper-insulated prototype, and it is designed to challenge every architectural and engineering preconception about zero energy homes.

We love Team Ohio’s frosted glassy exterior. The enCORE house boasts 930 square feet of living space built around a central mechanical core, leaving lots of space for work, play, and sleep. The team used thin film solar photovoltaics atop the roof that were locally manufactured in Ohio and cost nearly 70% less than typical solar arrays.

New Zealand’s First Light House was a favorite among Inhabitat and one of the houses that many of the students believe could be the ultimate winner. The beautifully butterflied house uses sheep’s wool insulation, and it has an innovative drying cupboard that dries clothes quickly by pumping solar-heated hot water through a metal exchanger.